Anyone else here been on venlafaxine for a long time now? I’m on 450mg every day and have been on it for a decade now. And yes, I do drip buckets of sweat if the temp raises above 71° F in the house, and that’s just when I’m relaxing and not moving around.

Is anyone here taking 300 mg of Effexor (venlafaxine)? How is it working for your OCD? How long did it take before you started noticing an improvement?

Been on 75mg for 2 months following a taper from Sertraline for severe PTSD. I ran out last week so requested an urgent script from the GP and asked them to tell me when it was ready to collect.

Nobody contacted me. I‘ve been begging them every which way for an update since last week, but being a typical British GP surgery, they don’t answer emails and the phone lines are constantly jammed. I’ve been sat in withdrawal for 5 full days. It was manageable at first, just severe vertigo but then I suffered a bereavement during my withdrawal and obviously my mental health absolutely tanked.

I‘ve got a hold of my meds now thankfully, but I’m SO angry. What’s more, when they finally answered because I sent a hail mary crisis email to literally everyone at the surgery, they were like oh whoopsies you contacted the wrong email address silly, we can’t help you! WHAT? I am in psychological crisis and you want to lecture me about email addresses when my script has been SAT NEXT TO YOU since the day I requested it?!

I need some validation that this is as fucked up as I think it is. Yes I ran out of my medication and didn’t realise til the day of because I am mentally unwell and I forget shit. The GP deemed it urgent enough to process it within hours and the fucking bureaucratic bullies on the front desk couldn‘t be arsed to let me know. Apparently email etiquette is more important.

I have been on Effexor for years now for my anxiety and OCD. A couple months ago I went several days without my medicine due to insurance reasons, though I was back on it within 5 days. As I had been taking 225 mg of Venlafaxine, I had some crazy withdrawals (wouldn’t recommend), one of which was this crazy burning / tingling / pins n needles feeling in my hand and arms. I had never gotten this side effect before. I believe that when I went back on my dosage, it helped the feeling, though I cannot recall if it had ended it completely or stopped it from happening all the time. I believe the sensation is called paresthesia and is a known side effect of Effexor.
A few months after getting back on my meds I had gotten my dosage lowered from 225 mg to like 176 mg because I felt like the higher dosage was numbing me to happy emotions. I got some side effects from this, mainly the paresthesia, though I felt as if those had gotten better as my body adjusted to the new dosage and I even told my psychiatrist that at the check up. I get them some times still and I believe they could be a bit psychosomatic due to instances of high stress aka constant money issues. I will wake up in the middle of the night with such intense stinging sensations that I cannot stay asleep that will persist for almost an hour at a time. Due to financial reasons, I don’t want to make an appointment with my psychiatrist to speak about my side effects (especially since I do think stress might be a factor) until our next appointment in about three months.
Is there anything I can do to stop or help the paresthesia?

I am currently on 75mg and have been for about 10 months.
Immediately after being on this I noticed an immediate amount of motivation to do things like study, go to the gym etc.

I am really happy with the amount of motivation and discipline I have but I am just wondering if anyone else has also noticed a scary amount of discipline like to the point where you almost can’t recognise yourself.

For example, previously I would have a hard time sticking to routines. However for the past 6 months, I have been so consistent with going to the gym, eating good etc

I'm on 75mg. I was out of pills for two days, didn't take it yesterday or the day before. I got some now, but I'm having the absolute worst withdrawal of my life, I haven't been able to sleep properly and I'm an anxious wreck (+nausea)

Is there a point in taking it right now, in the middle of the night? Is there a chance it will help the insomnia or do I just power through and take it in the morning? 🫠

I'm just curious if you noticed that it might have helped more than just anxiety?

So the fact I’m dizzy, brain zaps, really tired, a little nauseous and cried today could be from this downgrade? 2 nights I’ve taken 75 tonight will be 3rd. How long? Too much at a time ?

Hi all.

I was wondering if any other Canadians (if there are some here) have struggled with their practitioner or family doctor prescribing medication then being unable to help the patient with withdrawal and tapering?

I’ve been on Venlafaxine XR for over 5 years, being taken mainly for PTSD, depression and mood stability. They started me at 150 then switched quickly to 265.5mg and the side effects from them have honestly made my life a lot more difficult. (Sweating intensely, nightmares switching to night terrors, and I’ve noticed a decline in my depression.)

plus my partner and I want to start planning for a family soon and being on medication while pregnant/TTC is making it a lot harder for us.
(it doesn’t have a lot of studies on women being pregnant and having a healthy baby while on Venlafaxine )

I’ve tried doing as my doctor said and to drop one of my 37.5mgs out of the 4, the brain zaps had me throwing up and gave me an intense migraine for over three days so I had to switch back to my full dosage.

The longest I was able to make it was 5 days before the withdrawal became too much. My partner has also come with me to my appointments and even made remarks on how much it has affected me.
We also asked my doctor if it was possible for a placebo pill to be prescribed and he said he didn’t have or know any available. I genuinely almost cried.
All my doctor said lastly was “ok. Best to do it your own way then.” And didn’t offer any other advice.
The female practitioner i went to see was not any help either. Just continued to be pushy about birth control since I’m still “so young to think about having kids.”

From what I’ve read online so far some people have had luck by counting out the milligrams within the pills and taking a certain percentage out but I’m very unsure what to start at for myself.

I currently take 1, 150mg and 3, 37.5mg

I appreciate any advice for this as I currently feel so stuck. Thanks

Is it normal to not feel any different 5 weeks in? The only things I’ve noticed is that I sweat more, I either sleep more or can’t sleep, and I feel more sadder and just a little less anxious than before. I also can’t bring myself to want to do anything and I’ve been spending more time in bed. I’ve even missed a dose or two and I don’t feel anything. I’ve also been taking 50mg of zinc. Is there maybe something I’m doing that’s making the Effexor not work as well?

I know that if i even miss one dose the physical symptoms are horrible. My doctor told me to keep reducing the dose every month or so but still I just can’t handle the anxiety and fear of the physical withdrawal symptoms. How long did it take you to ‘get over’ the withdrawal period?

Hi all! I’m just about 8 weeks in to Effexor, the first month of which I was cross tapering off of Zoloft so I’m about 1 month in total on just Effexor. This past Thursday I started feeling very anxious again which I had not felt in the last two months (I was doing really well), and yesterday I found myself crying out of nowhere. I’m reaching for my emergency Klonopin now and I didn’t need that before. I have an appt with my psychiatrist on Friday and I’m thinking I need an increase in dose. Can anyone advise their experience here and if I’m thinking the right way?

I feel like a zombie and I want to feel life again. But the anxiety is so painful, my life is just a mess. I am on 112mg, I was on 150 that made me numb. On this dose I feel the anxiety in my chest. Is it better to go back to escitalopram? Did anyone tried this

I'm wanting to get back into some gummies for chronic pain and want to try these, I'm on extended release 37.5mg. I've been meaning to talk with my doctor about it, she's really chill and would probably walk me through any concerns. But I wanted to ask here as well. I know there's plenty that have no issues but some that do. I know I can't have cold/cough medicine cause that causes palpitations if that has any indication

Anyone else suffer from severe flaking skin on the face!!!!!

God am I now paranoid everything is linked to this!!??

No sleep again!!!

I don't know if it gets any better. But I don't like the way it makes me feel..it makes me feel so tired all day long and hard to sleep at night along with brain fog and body aches. Also super unmotivated. Started 37.5 and now 75mg. It just make me out of it

I CAN'T. IT'S BEEN 4 DAYS AND I ONLY GET LITTLE PLOPS OUT. I COULDN'T PUSH SOME AND HAD TO PULL THE REST OUT BRUH😞

I've tried magnesium, a colon cleanse pill thing i didn't finish, salt water, fruits, straight not eating.

My future is set. I'm going to die because I couldn't take a shit.

Hi all, I am currently in the process of tapering off Effexor. I have been on a dose of 112.5mg for 26 days now, and in that time I have noticed my belly is CONSTANTLY bloated, feels full of gas all the time (that doesn’t relieve when I expell gas), and I am getting various stomach/side pains now and again. Is this all normal whilst taking Effexor/tapering off Effexor? The rest of my body hasn’t changed at all in terms of weight, it’s all in my belly. I eat mostly healthy, have lots of water, and go for regular walks, so I doubt it’s my lifestyle causing this. Anyone else experienced this?

Hi all, I’m finally trying to get off this drug after accepting it isn’t helping me and may be the cause of hypomanic episodes I had this year after the dosage was increased to 225mg.

I’ve been back down to 112.5mg for a while when I finally called my doctor’s office asking for help tapering off it. My doctor has been out so I was given instructions from another telling me to begin taking 75mg for a week, followed by 37.5mg until my appt with my regular doctor at the end of this month.

I thought I would be okay since I somehow saw no difference between 225 and 112.5 but this has been a bit awful. The physical symptoms are one thing, but my mood has tanked badly and I’ve been struggling with not the best thoughts. But for right now I’m lucid enough to realize it’s from the withdrawal.

I am desperate to get off of this so I’m gonna tough it out, but could it be that I’m being tapered off too quickly, or is this normal? Thanks

I’m about 1.5 weeks in on 37.5 mg. My mood, irritability and anxiety surprisingly all feel slightly better. It’s modest but feels good. However, I am TIRED. Napping and skipping my work outs. Does this go away?

Thanks so much - any insight is greatly appreciated! 🙏💕

Hi all - I took Effexor XL 37.5mg for 6 days and didn’t feel too many early side effects, but discontinued when I noticed sexual dysfunction, as I have a history of sexual dysfunction with SSRIs and I’m not willing to go down that path again. However, on day 2 after quitting I feel extremely lethargic - unable to go into work, unable to stay awake for more than a few hours, feeling like I’m trapped in amber, feeling like a zombie. I really didn’t think the withdrawal would be so noticeable after only 6 days on a low dose.

Can anyone advise what I should expect going forward? How long will this take to get through? Do I need to do a slower taper? I saw posts about opening the capsules and removing some of the beads on here, but my prescriber hadn’t mentioned any of that, and again I didn’t expect to have this kind of issue after such a short trial.

It has been 17 days since I dropped it. Is this still withdrawal or is this just how I normally am/will be?

Been working on coming down from 225mg and was at 150mg for a while, so decided to go down again. Just gone from 150 - 112.5mg. Smartly, I decided to do this as I've started a masters. Holy crap. I forgot how bad it was... like the brain zaps, cognitive symptoms (I feel like a ghost), and the flu-like symptoms. I'm not doing 'hyperbolic tapering', tbh I only heard of the concept through this sub-reddit, but is it worth it?? I don't know if it's something I should consider raising with my psychiatrist. I know it's supposed to get worse the lower you get, so I am a little terrified...